


stripped bare, got nothing left

by heterocosmica



Series: 15 minute fics [18]
Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Gen, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 04:32:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18087500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heterocosmica/pseuds/heterocosmica
Summary: Penny runs from Nebraska.





	stripped bare, got nothing left

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the 15 minute fics prompt word #26 on pillowfort.

After yet another shouting match with her mother, Penny bides her time. She sits in her room, quiet as can be, and plans.

She doesn't go down for dinner. Instead, she pretends she's still pouting and then uses the general commotion of dinner to pack her bag and throw it out her window and into the bushes. It's late November so it's already dark and she knows no one's gonna run across it anytime soon. By the time daddy passes by the bushes at sunrise, on his way to feed the chickens, the bag will no longer be there, one way or another.

Patiently, she waits, ears aware of every hum and rustle. Finally, her family is asleep and she, with her shoes and jacket in one hand and her car keys in the other, sneaks out. 

Once outside, she works quickly. First, she pulls her shoes and jacket on. Then, swiftly, she tracks down her bag and hangs it around her shoulder. It's heavy but she's strong and when she's feeling like this, all full of fight and drive, there's very little that can stop her. Getting to her car, she opens the driver's side door, throws her bag on the back seat through it, and gears up to push. She knows that's the only way she's ever getting out of here, her mother sleeps light and her father has the hearing of a hawk and there's no way a car running wouldn't wake them. 

She gets to work. She only needs to push to the road.  _It's not that far,_ she keeps repeating in her head,  _less than a mile. Less than a mile and then you're free._

It takes over an hour but, when her tires hit the asphalt, she almost yells out in glee. She stops herself just in time, jumping in the car and starting the engine in one move, and gunning it down the road.

She holds her breath until she gets to the highway. The sun rises in front of her and, looking at the pink horizon she's driving towards, she rolls her window down and laughs and yells out in glee she hadn't felt since she was very little.


End file.
